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Apify vs KeyAPI

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Cheaper paid plan
Apify — $19/mo vs $189/mo for KeyAPI
Free plan
Both have one
Public API
Both have one
Higher Trust score
Apify — 94 vs 73 for KeyAPI
Best fit
Apify: Teams that would rather rent a maintained scraper than babysit their own · KeyAPI: Teams pulling data from several social networks at once

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

ApifyMarketplace and cloud platform of ready-made scrapers ('Actors') plus infrastructure to run your ownKeyAPIOne REST key for profile, post, comment and product data across 20+ social and commerce platforms.

Side by side

FactApifyKeyAPI
CategoryWeb Scraping & Data ExtractionWeb Scraping & Data Extraction
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$19/mo$189/mo
Public APIYesYes
Trust score94 / 10073 / 100
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API
CompanyApify Technologies s.r.o.KeyAPI
Launched2015—
Last verifiedOct 16, 2026Oct 22, 2026

What our research says

Apify

The Actor marketplace is the draw: for most popular sites someone has already built and maintains the scraper, and agent-facing interfaces (API, MCP) are first-class. Costs need watching, since compute units plus per-Actor fees stack on top of the subscription and are hard to predict before you run at volume.

Pros

  • Huge catalog of maintained scrapers for common targets
  • Real free tier with $5 of usage and no card required
  • SDKs, CLI, proxies and scheduling in one platform
  • Published discounts for startups, universities and nonprofits

Cons

  • Two-layer pricing (subscription plus usage plus Actor fees) complicates forecasting
  • Marketplace Actor quality varies by author
  • Large-scale scraping raises site-terms and legal questions the platform leaves to you

KeyAPI

If you need TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn and Amazon data from one contract instead of four scraper vendors, KeyAPI covers a wide surface and documents each endpoint for agent use. The catch is the price floor: $189 a month before you have shipped anything, and a free tier too small and too short to evaluate properly.

Pros

  • Single key across 20+ platforms including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Reddit and Amazon
  • Endpoints cover comments, transcripts and Amazon ASIN/GTIN lookups, not just profile scraping
  • Documented for MCP and LLM tool calling
  • Quarterly and yearly billing available alongside monthly

Cons

  • Cheapest usable plan is $189/month
  • Free tier is 100 credits that expire in three days
  • No company name, address or country published anywhere on the site
  • Credit cost per endpoint is not obvious before you sign up

Which one fits

Choose Apify if you need

  • Teams that would rather rent a maintained scraper than babysit their own
  • AI builders feeding agents live web data through the API or MCP server
  • Developers monetizing crawlers without running infrastructure

Choose KeyAPI if you need

  • Teams pulling data from several social networks at once
  • Agent builders who want data tools over MCP
  • Replacing a pile of in-house scrapers

Apify vs KeyAPI: the questions people ask

Is Apify cheaper than KeyAPI?

On published entry prices, Apify starts lower — $19/mo against $189/mo for KeyAPI. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it; what each plan includes differs.

Does Apify or KeyAPI have a free tier?

Both: Apify has a free tier, and KeyAPI has a free tier.

Which has a public API, Apify or KeyAPI?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.

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